Fillet knives having flexible blades are well known. Such knives often have a unitary steel blade and a rubber or plastic handle. The blade has an end portion, or tang, embedded in the handle. According to one known design, the tang has one or more holes therein. The handle, when molded around the tang, fills the holes and is thereby mechanically bonded to the tang. The tang also has a series of rounded notches in opposite side edges thereof. The handle material fills these notches and thereby tends to prevent lengthwise disengagement of the blade and handle.
Prior patents suggest a variety of handle designs and means for securing the handle to the tang. For example, it is common practice to secure the handle to the tang by means of rivets or other fasteners inserted through aligned holes in the handle and tang. See, for example, Wolfe U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,248 issued Jan. 22, 1980, Hahn U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,572 issued Mar. 25, 1975, Leger U.S. Pat. No. 2,421,339 issued May 27, 1947, and Stevens U.S. Pat. No. 1,418,683 issued June 6, 1922. A variety of rubber or plastic handles for knives or similar implements are widely known. See, for example, Cope U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,937 issued May 25, 1982, Heim U.S. Pat. No. 3,266,081 issued Aug. 16, 1966, and Moritsch U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,465 issued May 4, 1982. Such handles may have rows of yieldably gripping flaps (ribs) thereon. See Smith U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,289, issued June 5, 1984.
The blade portion of known fillet knives is somewhat flexible, a feature which facilitates filleting meat. However, the handle portion of such knives is generally inflexible. Typically, the handle is made of a tough, inflexible rubber or plastic, or the metal tang is thick and inflexible, or both. Such prior art knives allow no flexing action in the handle, and the flexible blade thus tends to break off at the juncture between the handle and blade.
The present invention provides an improved fillet knife having a substantially flexible tang and handle assembly.